Al-Razeen prison administration mistreats the prisoners of conscience in UAE

The International Centre for Justice and Human Rights (ICJHR) has been informed that the authorities of Al-Razeen Prison are mistreating and insulting the prisoners of conscience and undermining their dignity; in fact they are banning them from sitting or sleeping on the bed from 7:30 am to 2:30 pm, including the sick and the elderly. They further forced them to wear blue prison clothes all the time after they were allowed to put on lighter and casual outfits during the hot times.

These unjust measures were considered by the detainees as degrading and offensive to their dignity and against the right of every prisoner to have decent clothes that do not humiliate him in accordance with international standards, more precisely Article 17 of paragraph 1 of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, which states that: “ Every prisoner who is not allowed to wear his own clothing shall be provided with an outfit of clothing suitable for the climate and adequate to keep him in good health. Such clothing shall in no manner be degrading or humiliating”.

We recall that the administration of Al-Razeen prison does not stop harassing and mistreating the detainees and that the ICJHR has already warned against the disastrous and dangerous situation in the prison back in May 2017 when the prison guards searched the prisoners humiliatingly and forced them to take off their clothes and started touching them from their intimate body parts; which pushed Mr. Amran Al radwan, a detainee within the well-known case of the “UAE94”, to go into a hunger strike in protest against the degrading treatment that he and other detainees have been subject to and that caused them bad psychological state.

The International Centre for Justice and Human Rights would like therefore to call upon the authorities of the United Arab Emirates to:

Stop the ill-treatment and humiliation of the detainees and review the decision of obliging them to wear prison clothes as well as allow the prisoners to choose the outfit that suits them and that has the appropriate conditions of hygiene and health.

Enable the detainees of their right to have a rest whenever they wish or need, most importantly those who are sick and old.

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